Newark City Council approves new police director and first female police chief

Frances Micklow/The Star LedgerSamuel DeMaio was appointed the Newark police director after a 9-0 vote at the City Council meeting today. Newark also approved its first female police chief today.

NEWARK — The last time Newark’s city council approved a police director, their chambers exploded in a torrent of howls as police had to disperse a group of activists railing against Garry McCarthy.

The last time the city had a police chief, it sparked a power struggle that caused Mayor Cory Booker to abolish the position altogether.

Today, Newark filled both positions with little fanfare and less controversy.

The city council unanimously approved Samuel DeMaio as the city’s police director, just moments after a bill to re-establish the chief’s position cleared the council with all nine members’ votes. Sheilah Coley, a veteran police captain, was named acting chief by Booker just seconds after the council vote.

Coley becomes the first woman to hold the chief’s position, and the first person to fill the post since it was dissolved in 2008. For DeMaio, the council’s approval marks the latest achievement in a 25-year career that saw him rise from hard-charging beat cop to one of the most powerful law enforcements officials in New Jersey.

"Our police officers are second to none in law enforcement and it’s been a privilege for the past 25 years to work with the men and women of the largest and finest police department in the state of New Jersey," DeMaio said. "It is a tremendous honor and opportunity that the mayor and the council have given me to lead Newark’s police department."

Frances Micklow/The Star LedgerSamuel DeMaio was appointed the Newark police director after a 9-0 vote at the City Council Meeting today.

A few minutes after the council’s vote was finalized, DeMaio held a small celebration in his office with leaders from the Newark Fire Department and the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office. Wiping away a few tears, he hugged his father, retired detective Carmine DeMaio.

"We’re so proud of him. I couldn’t really express it in words. As a kid I knew he was going to go far in the department cause he had more than just a ‘I want to be a cop thing,’" said Carmine DeMaio. "He had a feeling for it. He had a love for the department. He had a love for the city."

DeMaio’s annual salary, with longevity rate included, is $190,400, according to city spokeswoman Anne Torres. Coley’s salary has not been set yet, Torres said.

Both Coley’s appointment and the decision to keep DeMaio were met with cheers from the typically hostile crowd of residents inside the council chambers. West Ward Councilman Ronald Rice Jr. called Booker’s decision to appoint a female police chief "historic," and said Coley’s experience running the department’s often troubled Internal Affairs unit made her an ideal candidate.

"She’s kind of come up through the ranks. She’s had all the important jobs that you’d need to have to be chief," Rice said. "I need somebody who knows the problems there to help clean that thing up."

Coley will now run the department’s day-to-day activity, while DeMaio will oversee all budget and policy decisions. While that division of power once split the department and City Hall in two, DeMaio has said he supports the decision to bring back the chief’s post.

Unconcerned with being the first female chief, Coley said today she’s just focused on helping DeMaio lead the department.

Tony Kurdzuk/The Star LedgerNewark Police Captain Sheilah Coley in this 2010 file photo. Newark officials have named Coley as the head of the Newark Police Department, the first female to hold the position.

"I promise my brothers and sisters in blue that I will give them the highest level of professional leadership and the citizens of Newark the best police force in the entire nation," she said.

The only discordant note to Coley’s appointment was sounded by the police union.

James Stewart Jr., vice president of the department’s Fraternal Order of Police, the city’s largest police union, said the union was pleased with the reinstatement of the chief’s position, but found its timing "concerning."

Referring to the layoffs last year of 162 officers, he said in a statement, "The city has the money to re-establish the chief position, and the manpower to provide a driver and office staff, but the city does not have the money to re-hire one police officer?"